The Lifemaker
by DenHollander
Summary: When all hope is gone, what remains? One man never lost hope, and in turn brought life back to the lifeless. -Note, this story is about a side character in CT, Lucca does not make mutch of an appearance, Robo, however, does.
1. Chapter 1

Life from destruction

Chrono Trigger and all it's characters belong to Square-Enix, I own nothing.

Apologies for the sudden ending, and the general long size of this first chapter. It's in fact mulitple chapters, but I need to go to bed soon so I decided to just throw it online like this and order it properly later. Sorry guys. Also, this is over a yearo ld, but I never bothered to post it online. Enjoy, and please, tell me what you think

-DenHollander

Read this first:

for those who have played chrono trigger you will notice that I have made lots of changes to the original story. This is because I wanted to tell a new story, based upon on the Future in Chrono Trigger. So, you'll see new locations, old locations expanded, and more descriptions of the wasteland. If anyone wants to complain about that, you can just stop right here and go look for a different story.

Chapter One; Dreaming of the future.

Taban's house

9;12

There is a moment, just before you wake up, that you are completely free. Free of all worries of life, free of the excitement of the coming day, free from everything. Taban liked the feeling so much he'd often refuse to even move a muscle, afraid of waking up. Eventually he'd roll around, and get up.

He walked over to the bathroom to take a short shower and shave off the beard that was forming on the underside of his cheek. The small bathroom, like most rooms in Taban's house was littered with either scraps of metal, or plans and scribbles that were supposed to form Taban's next invention. Or his daughter's. Both of them were not exactly organized people. His wife, Lara, used to organize all his junk into nice orderly piles. But after she had lost her legs in an accident that involved one of Taban's machines she refused to ever touch anything mechanical again. Taban had to accept that his loving wife turned into a bitter woman that could not even get out of bed. For years and years he had taken care of her, and he still did.

Descending the stairs he looked at his newest invention, the Telepod. If it worked today he'd become a very rich man. Everybody at the Millennium fair would want a device that can transport you to places far, far away. And because he and his daughter were the only manufacturers they could ask any price they'd like. Still dreaming of his rich future Taban entered the kitchen and started preparing a meal for him and his wife. From Lucca's room he could hear his daughter working on something. "Lucca, I got some breakfast for you, if you're not too busy!" Taban yelled, hoping it would get through to her. It sounded like she was "in the zone" as to speak, and working hard on something new. Taban smiled, as he was reminded of just how much his daughter was like him. He put a pan on the fire and tossed in a steak, not even bothering to put some oil in the pan.

Around the time it was edible Lucca had picked up on the smell. She stopped her thinking and walked over to the kitchen, where she gave her dad a big hug.

"Good morning, daddy!"

"Good morning Lucca." Taban returned the hug. "Today's the big day, isn't it?"

"I already spent an hour on my latest invention; I call it, the Ganderian Elektro Neurolauncher, or GUN for short." Lucca pulled out a strange device and pointed it at an empty can that lay around. She pushed a button on the front, and the device produced some kind of flash. Taban stared as the can was hit and kicked across the room.

"Lucca, why would you even build such a weapon? We live in peaceful times, there's no need for weapons!" Taban surprised Lucca by pulling the device out of her hands, examining it closely.

"It's a simple device that produces an energy pulse if you press the manual circuit breaker. Nothing complicated, really." Lucca grabbed the GUN and put in her pocket.

"An energy pulse?" Taban seemed a bit confused. He'd hate to admit it, but his daughter was smarter then him on several fields of technology. The telepod was mainly her idea, while he helped with producing the practical parts of the device.

Then he noticed that a black smoke was filling the room. Taban turned around to see his delicious steak turned into a piece of smoking charcoal. "Oh, damn." He placed the pan outside, reminding himself to clean it up later.

"Next time, show off your inventions when I'm not trying to cook something." Taban grumbled at Lucca's smile. "Let's just eat some bread and be on our way." He opened one of the cupboards and started to gather all things he needed for a breakfast without steak.

* * *

"Good morning, dear." Taban walked over to his wife, and kissed her on the cheek. He placed the plate he was carrying onto a table next to the bed.

"Good morning." Her voice sounded frail at first, but as she continued to talk her voice returned to normal. "Is there anything special happening today?"

"Yes, Lucca and I are going to the Millennial Fair to show off our newest invention."

Lara's voice turned sour. "Oh. How long are you going to spend time on your...machines?"

"Probably all morning. But this invention is different. We could get very rich, and then I'll build us a house that stretches into the sky!"

"You say that with every invention, dear. Yet it always ends up different." Lara had pulled herself up to her breakfast examining it closely. "Why is there no steak? Also, the bread looks filthy."

"I got the bread yesterday, dear. It's fine, it has to be fine. And I burned the steak."

"Did you get distracted by one of your machines again?" Lara said, cynically.

Taban sighed. Some days it was hard to see why he still put up with her. Then he realized that he still loved her, and it was his fault that she became like this. "Yes. Enjoy your breakfast, dear. I promise I'll be back for lunch." Taban kissed her on the forehead, before walking out. He just had to make this invention work. He had to give her a new life.

* * *

Millennium Festival

10;30

"All right, let the final test commence!" Taban looked back at the panel in front of him. On the other end of the Telepod Lucca was fixing up some broken wires cause by the rough transport by cart.

"I still lack 30 percent of power, or so it says." Taban kept his eyes fixed on the green bar, noting every change and passing it on to his daughter. After a bit of tweaking and a bunch of new cables the green bar filled up the entire screen. "And we're done!" Lucca closed the hatch and screwed it shut tight. She wiped the sweat from her forehead. Finally, their telepod was up and running. Now, all they needed was an audience...and a volunteer.

After a while people started filling up the plaza, examining the new invention. Despite Taban's best efforts to sound reassuring and confident, no person wanted to test out their machine. So they ended up waiting around for someone brave enough to try it.

Eventually Lucca's mute friend Chrono showed up. He smiled as his daughter walked up to him and started to give him an explanation on the device that only two people in Guardia truly understood. Chrono nodded, and pointed to someone behind him. A young, blonde girl that was wearing one eye-catching necklace. Maybe she wanted to try out their new invention. She seemed excited enough.

Taban raised his voice, and caught the girl's attention. "Step right up, any of you who have the time and courage! Our "Super Dimension Warp" is the invention of the century! To use it, jump up here..." Taban pointed at the left pad. "And you'll get transported here!" Taban walked over to the right pad, showing off one of the blinking lights on top of the device. "It's the masterwork of my beautiful daughter, Lucca!" And a bit of me as well, he thought to himself.

The girl ran over to the machine, taking it in as much as she could.

"Chrono!" Lucca yelled at him. "Where have you been? No one wants to try the telepod! How about you?"

'It looks like fun! I'll watch while you try it out." The girl jumped up and down of excitement. Chrono scratched the back of his head as both Lucca and the girl gently pushed him onto the left telepod.

Taban and Lucca took their positions, as they started to prepare for the energy transfer. Taban pushed away a feeling of nervousness as he monitored the energy ratings. So far their telepad had not been tested. They had barely finished it in time for the Millennial fair. While he had faith in his daughter, the whole idea was just...so far-fetched. Transporting someone though the air...so many things could go wrong. Any crossed wire and Chrono would disappear...

Taban forced himself to focus on his duty. It was his job to safely bring Chrono back, and he would not fail at it.

"Beginning energy transfer..." Lucca said, as both ends of the machine started to produce a low hum-drum sound.

On the telepad, Chrono started spinning around...and disappeared. Moments later, he reappeared on the right telepad, safe and sound! Taban let out a sigh of relief. Everything worked. His daughter was a genius, and they were going to get rich!

"That looked fun! Can I try?" The girl asked him

"Sure. Step right up! Behold, ladies and gentlemen as this beautiful girl will be the second person to use our new and revolutionary Super Dimension Warp!" Taban took to his place, and nodded at Lucca, who once again began the process of teleportation. The buzzing began again, but nothing happened. Taban checked it thrice, but he could not find the problem. A sudden bright light pulled his attention away from his display to the telepod that the blonde girl was standing on. Some kind of portal, a gateway had formed behind her, and sucked the girl inside. Then, the gateway disappeared into nothing.

After a stunned silence the crowd started to talk wildly, spreading rumors or their thoughts on what had just happened.

"Lucca, what just happened?' Taban stared at his daughter for answers, but she could not answer him

"All right folks, show's over, please return to the main festival Square." Taban shooed the people away, making sure the biggest gossipers left the area the first. He let out a deep sigh, before returning to his daughter's side.

"What happened Lucca, and more importantly, where is the girl?"

"I don't know Dad, I'm working on it." Lucca opened the hatch again to check the insides of the telepod.

"Could you look at the left telepod. I see no significant differences here."

"Sure..." Taban walked up to the telepod, as something caught his eye. The girl's amulet was lying on the middle of the telepod. He picked it up, and leaned back against the far end of the telepod, accidentally setting of the machine for a third run

The medal started to glow, brighter and brighter. Taban the medal around, examining the back side. It had Guardia's royal crest on it. Such a medal had to belong to a member of the royal family. A sudden flash made Taban flinch and stumble back. Behind him, the same portal appeared.

"LUCCA!"Taban wanted to get away from the rainbow-colored vortex behind him, but it pulled him inside faster then he could run away. His last sight was that of the telepod disappearing into the rainbow horizon behind him

* * *

Waking up in a nightmare

"Hell. I'm in hell." Slowly, Taban's thoughts came back to him. But it was so hard to grasp what happened to him. His mind processed what he saw, and after a silence he spoke.

"Well, I guess I'm not in Guardia any more."

Wherever he was, it was nothing like the kingdom of Guardia. In stead of lush green hills in the distance there was a black wasteland, stretching as far as Taban could see. The wind was fierce and relentlessly blew sand in his face. Behind him he could hear the waves of the ocean that was seemingly darker then the charred land he stood upon.

Taban had transported himself onto the black beach of a large bay. "HELLO?"

"IS ANYONE THERE?" Taban yelled at the top of his lungs, but all he could hear was the howling wind.

In front of him was something that looked like the remains of a metal path that had not been walked upon in years. It looked like something left behind by a rotting, decaying sheet of metal.

There was no one. No matter where he looked Taban could see anything of life...

"Am I dead?" Taban checked himself. "No, I still feel alive." Left of him lay his faithful hammer, which he picked it up. On the side stood the description Lucca had etched in with one of her inventions. "To the best dad in the world. Happy 40th anniversary! Love, Lucca."

Taban stared at those last two words. Suddenly he felt very sad and lonely. Lots of thoughts crossed his mind. Would he be home in time to make Lara's lunch? Would he even get home again?

What is this place he was sent to? He needed to get going, else he'd never get there in time.

He started following the metal path that led up one of the sandy hills. The wind started to blow even harder. Taban held his hands to protect his eyes from the loose sand that was flying all around.

Finally he reached the top of the hill. From this elevated position he saw the landscape of death in front of him. There was a completely black stretch of land in front of him. There were but a few things that stood out from the wasteland. The metal road stretched into the horizon, and above it hung something that looked like flickering lights. There were no plants or animals anywhere. Sometimes a lone stump of charred-black wood was the only thing that resisted the wind

Taban's heart collapsed. This place was nothing like Guardia...or any land that he had ever herd of. He suddenly knew that he was far, far away from home. He'd never reach Lara in time.

"What am I going to do now?" Taban looked around. He could only see the metal road in front of him and the dark sea behind him. The lights were still there, blinking on and off, inconsistent in time and strength.

Slowly, he descended down the stairs. He started walking at a speed that he could maintain for hours, making sure he did not have to stop to rest. He wanted to get out of the wind's reach, as soon as possible. He never lost sight of the lights in front of him.

The further he walked, the more surreal the experience came. His eyes felt tired of staring at the lights, but he became scared of losing his one point of orientation. In his mind he saw himself walking around in circles in the darkness, with no one to talk to or no one to help him. Eventually he would sit down...and die.

Taban pushed the thought out of his mind. He WAS going to go back to Lucca and Lara. He WAS going back home, and nothing was going to stop him. With this sudden burst of determination he started walking even faster.

The structure was large, more then three times as high as his own house, even larger then the towers of Guardia castle. It was made completely out of metal, but it showed large signs of structural failure and decay. The same kind of decay that had struck the roads. It was a metal dome riddled with holes and lights. Most of the lights were off, but a few flickered brightly. Taban looked how he could get inside. There was a shut metal door in front of him. He tried to pull it open, whacking it, kicking it, but the door would not budge. Taban gave up, banging his arm against the door in idle hope. He'd have to find a different way inside. As he started to circle the structure he noticed that there was a large hole just to the left of the door that he could easily fit through

"How did I even miss that?"

* * *

The hallway was littered with junk, scraps of metal, and other indescribable things. A bunch of wires hung from a hole in the roof, occasionally sparking as the wind made them collide.

Carefully Taban pushed them aside, nearly jumping of fear when they sparked behind his back.

He breathed in and out, hoping that the adrenaline rush would fade away. After he had calmed down enough he entered a large room.

There was a path that led to a central platform that was littered with brown shapes. He couldn't quite make out what they were. On the right of him Taban observed a gaping hole in the roof that let through a lot of wind and sand. It looked like something big had fallen through the roof and tore apart multiple pipes.

"Everything is broken..." Taban fell silent. His eyes focused on the central platform. He saw a person. The brown shapes from before were people.

"HELLO!" Taban yelled, noting how his voice echoed. He could see that he had turned some heads, but there was no real reply.

As Taban got closer to the central platform more people started staring at him. They looked like husks, thin, and almost lifeless. In the back of the room people were standing around a leaky pipe. They were gathering the water that slowly dripped down from it.

An old man slowly rose to his feet. He was nearly bald, outside of some hair on the side of his head. His general appearance looked very rough and filthy. He leaned on a stick just to stay upright. "Who are you?" The voice felt very week

Taban felt like asking 20 questions at the same time, but unike his daughter he managed to restrain himself. "I am Taban, an inventor. I had a demonstration at the millenial fair of my new Telepod device, but it malfunctioned. If I may ask, where am I now?"

"This is...used to be Arris dome."

"Arris dome?" Taban frowned. "Never herd of this place. Where did you get all this technology?"

"What?" The old man didn't seem to undestand him "Are you from Trann drome? How did you make it past the monsters?"

"Monsters? I haven't seen any monsters." Taban looked around. "You are the first living thing I saw since I came here."

"Your clothes...are new...to me." the old man struggeled for words

"I don't get what you mean." Taban began to be annoyed at the confused old man...but it quickly faded when he saw how skinny and weak the man was.

"...so you're a traveller. Welcome. This, is what's left of Arris dome. If you're tired you can use our Enertron to recharge. It won't stop the hunger, though."

The old man pointed at a device on the left. It had 2 odd "tentacles" stretching out of it.

"Thank you." Taban's curiosity made him examine the machine up close. He had no idea what it did, or how it worked, but he wanted to know how.

"It seems as if you should take place inside it. This green core seems essential."Taban began to descend into technospeak, but a tap on his shoulder knocked him from his thoughts.

"Just stand inside it.' For a second, Taban thought that the old man wanted to smile, but it never happened.

Taban placed his back to the machine He instantly he regretted it as the tentacles locked him down into position. He tried to struggle but suddenly he stopped. He could suddenly feel energy glowing inside him, as if he had just woken up. All the troubles, how tired he felt from walking here, it all faded. As the machine opened up to let him out he felt like a whole new man.

"What is this thing?" Taban examined

"The Enertron. It keeps us alive, but it never stops the hunger."

"Hunger? You people have all this technology and you're hungy?"

"We have not eaten in..forever." The old man sat down again.

Taban looked at the old man, more bones then flesh. "But...how are you alive?"

"The Enertron. If it were to fail, we would all die. Perhaps we should stop hoping and simply give up. All life on earth will die, eventually."

"Earth? This is earth? But this is nothing like earth, its a barren place filled with nothing but emptyness and this dome here."

"It was not allways like this. But now it is."

Taban was starting to think. This old man claimed this place was earth, his earth. But where was Guardia? Was he on an unknown continent? Perhaps the thing that sucked him inside...could have moved him in time, not in space. That would explain the technology, and the destruction of it while still being on earth.

"What year is it?"

"What is a year?" The old man looked confused.

"What happened to the world? Why is earth like this?"

"The story goes that one day, fire rained from the sky."

Taban nodded patiently for the old man to continue. But when he didn't he coughed and said "And?"

"And what?"

"Is that all you know?"

"Yes. "

"...I can't believe it! Lucca and I invented time travel! I'm in the future!" He shouted at the end excited about the prospect of being able to travel through time. "But...why is the future like this?" his excitement fell flat at the staring of the underfed children nearby.

"We don't know. But there is no future for us, none but death." The old man coughed,

"I have invented time travel, well, we did. That mean that I can take you back to the past, and.." Tan ban's excited rambling was cut short by the realization that he didn't know how to activate the time machine from here. Which ment that he was stuck here, for the rest of his life.

"No...but...Lara...Lucca...I..." They were long dead and gone. Suddenly his life felt short and meaningless. It was as if nothing he ever had done in his life had meaning.

"Why are you crying, stranger?" The old man looked quite concerned.

"I am not crying." Taban wiped the tears from his eyes. "I'm just...thinking." Thinking about how he would never see his daughter or wife again. The old man was right. If you were stuck in this place, there truly was no future for you. He sat on the floor, looking at the misery around him. A dead body lay nearby, but no one bothered to remove it. It lacked even skin, just a skeleton. All of them would slowly turn into skeletons. He would just sit there until he died.

"No." Taban stood up. "I am still alive. I can help these people, I just know it."

"Old man?" Taban picked up his hammer. "How can I help you with anything?"

"Help? I do not believe you can help. Unless you want to risk your life, of course."

"What do you mean, risk my life?"

"We used to have a plant storage downstairs, at least, I think so. If you could get past the security robots you might just bring back some food." The old man nodded "But all who went there never came back." He pointed to a hatch.

"If you go there, your life isn't worth anything."

"I guess I'l have to check it out. I promise I'll be back."

As Taban climbed down the hatch the old man slowly shook his head. "Young foolishness."

* * *

The hallway he entered had little light, and Taban had to guide himself to the other end of the room by little dim light on a control panel on the other side. On the other end he could see that the road ahead split up, but way to the left was blocked. Therefore he had to go right into a far less wide hallway. At the end he could see another light. As Taban got closer the light it suddenly got brighter. A beam came from the small light at the end, that was as bright as the sun. Taban saw the projectile heading for him and was barely able to dodge it. He could hear the sound of metal on metal approaching and decided to fall back. A second beam hit him in the shoulder, slightly burning the flesh. Taban ran to the larger hallway and hid around the corner. The mechanical device, or whatever it was, was slowly approaching. Taban reached for his hammer, holding it out to strike.

A mechanical spider with a bright light on top of his head walked out of the tunnel. It slowly turned it's mechanical head to observe the room around it. It turned full circle and observed Taban. It immediately prepared to fire, but Taban wouldn't allow it. With one fierce swing he lobbed the spider's head off, sending it flying into the wall. The mechanical legs seemed to get a seizure shortly before Taban's second swing made it shut down completely.

As he checked if the device had completely shut down his curiosity over took him. He grabbed the head, and the body of the robot and dragged it along with him up the metal stairs, where he could beter observe them. It was not exactly a spider, but it had 8 legs and moved them as a spider would. On the inside of the device (which he could see through the gaping hole where the head would have been) he saw a lot of small electric devices, a long with one medium sized box. Taban carefully pulled the box loose from the metal strips that held it in place. It was painted bright green and had large blue letters on the side. "Super Energy Supply Box Mark III" On top of the box were two small metal knobs. Around those knobs two broken wires were attatched

"Hmm...this could be it's power supply."

"What is that thing?" The old man carefully approached Taban.

"Something that tried to kill me downstairs. I killed it, in stead." Taban reached for the "head" of the spider, and found two broken wires that seemingly matched up to the wires that ran into the Super Energy Box. He attatched one wire to the box, while carefully laying out the other two. He created quite a few sparks when he completed the electrical circuit. The mechanical head came to life, the mechanics inside buzzing. The head fired a beam at the old man, but it was nothing more a short burst of normal light. Taban had broken the connection again before the old man could be hurt.

"Hmm..." Taban looked at the inside of the head to observe where the beam came from.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2, I guess.

(Author's note; halfway through this I realize I'm not exactly happy with the whole timeschale of this chapter. But at the same time it shows off the complete death of time, from Taban's perspective. So, whatever.)

WIth a few wriggles back and forth Taban was able to remove the parts he needed to create his newest invention. Now he laid them out on a broken table that wasn't even close to replacing his workbench. He needed tools, but had nothing but his hammer. He reached for a long scrap of metal and started hitting one end until it flatted considerably. "That there is my new screwdriver." He bent it double so he had more of a solid grip on it. With it he was able to further strip down the machine. Meticulously he organized every part and doodad from small to big in a straight line.

"and this came from here…and there…"

'What are you doing?" The old man slowly approached his new workbench.

"I don't know…yet."Taban removed another part from the robot's inner workings and laid it next to the others. Then, it struck him. One of the metal strips was bent just like Lucca's G.U.N. With a few modifications he could use that as a start to create his own gun. Taban had everything he needed.

Carefully he attatched the energy box to the underside of the bent strip. He used a few wires to create a solid "basket" that would keep the box in it's place. After connecting two wires to the box he cut them in half. They would make for a simple circuit breaker. Now, he attatched the long cylinder that had produced the beam of light on the front end, attatching two wires to it as well. He completed his design by strapping a movable strip of metal to the middle of the device. If he pulled the string on with his left hand the gun would produce a beam…in theory.

Careful not to break it he removed it from his workbench. He tossed the smallest scrap of metal on the floor and aimed his gun at it. After pulling the wire the electrical circuit was completed and the cylinder came to life, producing a short beam that knocked the metal scrap across the floor.

"What…is that?"

"A gun, At least, that's what my daughter called it. I don't think it works on her level of physics though. So technically speaking, it's not a gun."

The old man gave Taban a confused look.

"Nevermind." Taban went back to his workbench. Gently he pulled the wire. The gun only produced a light that seemed to have no effect. Carefully he placed the tip of his finger under the light, and felt nothing. He then took aim at another scrap, and pulled the wire again. The beam didn't just knock the scrap away, but it immediately punched a small hole through the table as well.

"Holy…." Taban had severely underestimated the capacities of his new toy…weapon. Carefully he laid it down on the workbench, thinking about a way to prevent the gun from firing on accident and burning through his leg. A kind of safety, security.

With the extra light of the gun Taban managed to explore further into the regions below the central hall. In the beginning he had to move from corner to corner as it seemed that every simple hallway had one of those robots in them. He setteled into the routine of checking around the corner, firing at the robot until it stopped moving, and drag it's remains to the exit. He could use some spare parts, for starters. It took quite a while until Taban reached a far larger chamber.

Large rats were running around back and forth, while several slow-moving, yet more heavily armed robots patrolled the surroundings. For now, he didn't want to take the risk of alerting one robot and being overrun by the others. He slowly backed away when he felt something move past his legs. He screamed in fear and fired multiple shots all around him. Immediately he decided to retreat back to the exit, while hoping that he would even get there.

He climbed back to the central chamber, and put the broken lid back on top of the hole. Any feeling of tiring was quickly removed one session in the enertron. He immediately went back to work, stripping down the new set of robots for spare parts. Time was starting to lose it's meaning, as now he could work endlessly. It took him a while, but eventually he had three new guns. Every one of them had multiple improvements over the older version. The wire was replaced by a simple trigger that he replicated from Lucca's design. He managed to use a semi-weak setting of his gun to softly melt the the metal strips to each other, and create a proper casing that would protect the easily broken wires. He was ready to go back to the regions below when something made him stop.

The people were watching him. They had been watching him, ever since he came back. They were more like skeletons then real, living, breathing people. All this time he had only been thinking about himself. Working for himself. Living for himself. Taban had to help them.

He started looking around. How could he begin? Where would he start?

"Old man?"

"Yes?"

"How can I help you?"

"Help? With what?"

"That's what I'm asking." Taban pointed at his newest gun model "I made this in…eeeh….some time. I'm sure I can help you with something."

The old man pondered. "The roof has been broken for years."

"I'll see what I can do, no, I will fix this roof." Taban walked back to his workbench, deep in throughs over he he even could start fixing the roof. But before he could, he needed to take his tools along. He couldn't carry all of them a t the same time, so he had to work out his next invention. He pulled out the longest wire he could find and wrapped around his chest. From a set of smaller wires he created a set of rings that attatched to the larger wire. Then he hung his screwdriver, two of his guns, and his faithfull hammer on these rings. With all his tools ready he let out a slow gulp. He had to return back to the icy winds outside. A sudden rush of wind in his back made him realize that the wind had been blowing all the time. For him, but also for the others.

He left through the way he entered. Once outside he started evaluating the damage. There were many holes everywhere, but one detail instantly struck him now that he had been observing them. The holes all showed evidence of an impact from the outside.  
He wanted to do further research into them but now was not the time. Uneasy, he started climbing the large metallic structure. At the first hole he found he started to use his hammer to rhythmically punch the deformed metal back into what he thought was it's original form. He then used one of his guns to melt the piece back into place.

Taban let out a deep sigh. This would be definitely take a lifetime to finish. Not to mention that he would need tons of metal to keep the wind out for good.. After every time he finished one hole he climbed back down to use the Enertron, strip down a new piece of useless metal, and carry it back up to where he could attatch it to the next hole in the roof.

He smiled, and stroke his chin, surprised to suddenly feel a surprisingly thick beard. Had he really been working for days apon end? He felt extremely hungry, but he had been dealing with the feeling for so long that it had stopped bothering him long ago. Time was nothing less then a blur. He had been working on everything and anything. The roof had bene patched up, the pipelines had been fixed, and was slowly restoring the power system . Life was simple, and in every thing that he created or fixed made him feel satisfied. He hadn't even bothered to explore the lower regions of the compound, not wanting to risk combatting these larger robots.

The people were still as lifeless as ever, but they were starting to improve. Or, it was Taban's mind was playing tricks on him. They were strong enough to walk to the enetron once a day, but too weak to do anything more then that.

Taban didn't think about it any further until now. They had no food and very little water, and somehow the enertron prevented them from dying of starvation.

He was going to work on his biggest project yet. He was slowly building a tiny pipeline to the sea from where he could transport enough water to hydrate everyone inside the compound. Sure, he did have to remove the salt from the water first, but that could be dealt with later. The first few pipes had been laid down when something suddenly pulled his attention.

For one of these rare moments the wind had stopped gushing Taban could look further then usual. Now, he noticed something distinctly…large in the distance. Perhaps it was another dome…or something else. Out of nowhere he decided to make the decision to stop working on his pipeline and


	3. A short message

Due to the untimely death and demise of my father I am hereby suspending this story. I no longer feel like writing a story as bleak as this and I hope that I can pick up the pase later. I hope, I can, but for now, I need to focus on my family, my education, and my friends. Thank you for reading, and reviewing, and I hope to be back.

-DenHollander


	4. Returning to my stories

I am back. It's been a month since my father died. Things have been changing so fast…and everything just keeps going. But…I'm back.

One of the pieces of music my dad selected for his funeral was "Show must go on" by Queen. I take the title as a literal last piece of advice of my dad. The show must go on, and it will. Now, I will be continuing Making Do, and the Lifemaker . I'll try to stick to a schedule of switching back and forth between these stories every week, so you'll have one chapter for Making Do per two weeks, and the same for the lifemaker.

I'm doing my best to get back on track.

I'll try to have the first new chapter up today.

The show must go on!


	5. Chapter 3

Taban started to feel worried. He suddenly felt much weaker then when he first entered these barren lands. As if something was slowly draining the life from him. He couldn't quite place it. He turned around. Releived that he could still see the dome, Taban continued to approach the large structure. It was metallic, like the dome from before, but this…structure seemed completely wrecked. The structure had been in ruins for quite a while.

Perhaps he could re-use some of the metal and wiring in his efforts to improve the dome. The roof was not finished, and he needed more materials to make sure it would stay structurally safe for a few years, at least.

"HELLO! ANYBODY HERE?" He yelled, but got no reply. "I guess it's just me."

Taban tapped on a lone sheet of metal, intent on testing it's stability. The short, yet fierce sound of metal of metal echoed around the abandoned buildings before fading into the ever-lasting sounds of the soaring winds.

"Seems solid enough." He looked around for more usable sheets, when he noticed that most buildings had the letters "Site 32" on them. "Site 32? Hmm...this looks like some kind of research facility." There were all kinds of simplified warning signs on the walls, and a defunct neon sign that said "Use caution when handling all chemicals."

He continued his search, wading deeper and deeper into site 32. At first he was cautious, but it soon appeared to him that nothing could live out here. Oh, how wrong he was. On a whim he continued until he reached a large open space. In front of him were more defunct laboratories, but to the rright there was a large flat space that stretched past many of the buildings.

"That looks just like one of these metal roads. Hmm…I guess this is the end of site 32, then. Hold on, what's that?" Taban could see a vehicle in the distance. Carefully he approached it, and examined it closer. It was painted blue on top, and yellow on the lower half. Small flaps of metal extended from the front of the object. In the lower back there were several pipes leading right into the object. From the wheels below it taban could determine that it was an autonomous carriage, or as he liked to call it, a vehicle.

It was simply incredible. Taban had came up with the idea of an autonomous land vehicle, but it didn't seem possible…yet. Guardia had steam powered boats, but these engines were not suited for land travel. They were too big and bloated, no kind of land vehicle would be big enough to carry them and still be able to move faster than a horse drawn carriage. With some study, perhaps he would be able to repair it, and control it.

Suddenly, he could hear several creaks. Metal hinges moved back and forth. Taban suddenly recognized the sound. It sounded like one of the robots he encountered below the dome.

He was surrounded, by 10 or 12 different robots. They seemed ready to leap at him, all at the same time. But Taban was ready. He planned that he could take out one robot with his gun, before using the distraction of his surprise attack to break out of his encirclement. After that, he could find some place where he could find cover, or protection. If he stood here ,out there in the open he would definitely lose the upcoming fight. Taban slowly slid both hands to his hammer and gun, waiting for the best moment to strike.

The robot suddenly focused on something on the right of him. Taban could faintly hear an engine running, and the sound continuously kept becoming louder and louder. Soon he saw a two-wheeled vehicle drive into the open space and stop just in front of him.

To Taban's surprise the vehicle seemed to transform...fold into a human-like robot. It had a brown , featureless-face with sunglasses but lacked a mouth. Its wheels folded into it's back, and the pipes folded to there as well, still steadily blowing smoke.

"Bro!" the robots chanted , in unison. They seemed excited., even though the flat tone of their speech was making it quite difficult to determine that

"Wait, you can talk?" Taban feel from the first surprise into the second

"Thank you for the intro, boys!" The robot turned around to face Taban. The voice of the robot seemed much clearer then other voices.

"You lowlife can call me Johnny. I'm the leader of this pack."

"I am not a lowlife, I'm a human." Taban sounded defiantly, but he was stil aware of the odds being against him.

"A human? Interesting. " Johnny paused for a while, before continuing. 'Now, listen up. The ruined highway ahead is the only road we've got. You wanna reach the other side? Then you're going to have to drive – in a race against me, that is."

"Why would I race you?"

"Because." Johnny answered. Taban waited for the rest of his sentence, but it never came.

"I'll let you use the jetbike." Johnny pointed at the bike. " 'cause that's the kinda guy I am. Don't sweat it – and don't you dare chicken out, babe!"

Taban noticed the threat underlying his last few words. His chances of defeating the robots on his own were slim. Perhaps the race was the best idea. He just had to win. Or so he said to himself. He didn't know what the alternative was, but it didn't seem pretty.

"All right. I'll race."

"We'll ride like the wind, yeah!"

Johnny morphed into his bike form again. Taban carefully climbed into the jetbike. The inside was filled with all kinds of different buttons and handles. One the underside of the main panel Taban could see a hole, suited for a key. But he didn't have the key. He looked at Johnny again.

"I don't know how to drive it!"

"Better find out fast, babe."

"What's a babe?' Taban wondered.

"You."

'Thank you for that oh-so-helpful answer!"

If he was going to drive the jetbike he had to do it all on his own, like pretty much everything he did since he entered this strange world. With some careful hammer smashes he had removed the keyhole, revealing the wires that lay underneath. He linked up several wires, following the pattern he could make out from the back of the keyhole. Nothing happened.

"All right, Taban, think. You insert the key…and then.." The markings on the keyhole showed that the key must have turned after inserting it." Turn it to…" He pulled out his screwdriver and carefully inserted into the keyhole. After turning it to the right the underside of the device put out a short spark. "Dangit. I should have started out by just turning it!" Grumbeling he undid the damage he did before and put the keyhole device back in its place. After turning the screwriver again the panel lit up brightly, and the vehicle slowly shook back and forth. From the damaged mirror to the left of him Taban could see smoke coming out of the rear of the jetbike.

"You are so slow, dude, I would have finished the race twenty times , if I wasn't the guy I was." Johnny turned back to his human from and folded his arms.

Taban looked at Johnny. He could never, not even in his wildest dreams, have thought of a robot with such a…human-like level of intelligence.

"I don't know how to drive this thing. Could you give me a second to find out?"

"Whatever." Johnny's voice was played at a lower pitch then usual, as if he wanted to show his boredom…or indifference.

He examined all the different levers and buttons, before setteling on the wheel in front of him and the large blue lever to his right. As soon as he moved the lever forward the shaking increased, and the jetbike began to move. With the wheel in front he could make a pair of flaps move in the back that allowed him to change the direction of the bike from right to left. Gently he drove a few circles before Johnny called out

"Are we gonna race, or are we going to ride in circles? 'Cause I hate circles just as much as I hate the slow ones!" Johnny returned to his bike form.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. I'm ready."

"You'd better be, dude. I'm ready too. Follow me to the start, and we're good to go."

Taban drove the jetbike behind Johnny. Eventually Johnny stopped in front of a dark brown line. It looked like someone had drawn it with a laser weapon. Or rather, some robot. Taban didn't know what Johnny was capable of, and he didn't want to find out. He stopped the jetbike next to Johnny.

"All right, dude. He's the rules. Whoever is first to the end of the highway wins, and by whoever, I mean, me."

Taban nodded. He had his hand on the handle, ready to pull it from it's neutral stance.

One of the robots from before showed up, and stood on the starting line.

"Johnny. Versus. Unknown." It lit up it's lone eye. From red, to yellow, to green."

"3…" Taban took one more look at Johnny. He wondered how he went from discovering a new source of materials to racing a robot that had threatened to kill him.

"2…"Johnny looked back, his bland face unable of showing any emotion.

"1…" Taban checked for the last time that he was using the right handle, and that his other hand was on the steering wheel.

"RACE!" The robot fired a laser into the air. Johnny initially sped away from Taban, and was gaining speed fast. Taban pushed the handle until it reached it's very end. The sudden acceleration pushed him into the back of his chair. Johnny was quite far ahead, but Taban was catching up to him…he hoped. At least the distance between them was decreasing. The road was filled with small holes but the jetbike easily drove over them. But in the distance taban could see a lot of incoming obstacles.

Large pieces of deformed metal appeared in the distance. The road wasn't blocked, but Johnny was forced to slow down, taking sharp turns left and right to dodge all the obstacles. Taban pulled the handle back a bit as well, and with a yank on the wheel the jetbike steered to the right, avoiding the first large obstacle. Johnny was still in the lead, but Taban now had a chance of winning.

With a practiced ease Johnny slipped past everything that approached him. He had ridden this course time after time, and knew the fastest route. Taban struggeled to keep up. Then, he crashed into a small pile of rubble. The jetbike shook violently, but continued to venture foreward. Taban removed his hand from the handle and used both hands to jerk the jetbike away from another oncoming hazard.

Taban was close to quitting when the oncoming barrage of obstacles stopped. The road was flat again, and not far ahead of him rode Johnny. Taban pushed the handle with all his might, and the jetbike started to close in on Johnny.

"Come on, you have to go faster then this! Taban looked around for anything that could help him. He felt as if the jetbike wasn't going as fast as it possibly could. On the right he noticed another handle. This one had markings with 1,2 and 3 on the site. Taban set the handle to 2, hoping that it stood for engine power. The jetbike shook, and it sounded like the engine protested.

"Oh dangit."

But then the engine shifted gear , and the jetbike seemingly doubled in speed (according to Taban, that is.) To his own surprise Taban sped past Johnny, and for the first time was in the lead

"No way. I will not lose to..." Johnny increased his own speed, and was closing in fast.

Taban could see Johnny approaching from his rear mirror. Johnny was now right next to him, and attempted to overtake him. Taban flicked the gear handle on the left into three.

Johnny felt incredibly satisfied as he noticed that Taban fell back. But then he was once again put into second place by the jetbike roaring past him.

"That is impossible!" Johnny tried to keep up, but he couldn't. He was at his maximum. Taban raced over the finish line. He didn't notice that he had won until Johnny slowed down, and came to a halt. Taban put the gear back to one, and slowly turned around.

Johnny stared at the ground in defeat. "You raced me, and you won. Challenge me again, if you want to. We'll ride like the wind, baby!"

Johnny turned around and preparedto ride away when Taban stopped

"Hey Johnny!" Taban got out of the jetbike, and walked over to Johnny. "So that's it. You're just going to leave like that?"

"You won, I lost. That's the way it goes. Losers' gotta leave, winners gotta win."

"Actually, I have to tell you something."

Johnny turned around

"What."

"You're the first thing I've met since I came here that hasn't given up or tried to kill me yet…I think. I'm here trying to help these people in the dome back there. I could really use some help, from anyone, even a robot like you.

"You want me to help you? Why in all my cricuits would I go with you?"

"What else are you going to do then? Practice this race on your own until you meet a new challenger. "

"Exactly". Johnny put his arms over each other.

"That's insane!"

"Did you just call me insane? " Johnny slowly approached Taban

"No, I did not. I said that doing the same thing over and over is insane. You look like a good per…robot. These people need your help, our help. Please."

"I can't just leave site 32."

"What is stopping you?"

Johnny thought about it, but he couldn't come up with a single reason. "Nothing."

"If nothing is stopping you, please come with me to the dome." Something popped into Taban's mind. "If you do, I will race you again later. But hey, if you don't want to come that's fine." Taban walked back when he felt that Johnny put his hand on his shoulder.

"Stop. I will go with you, unknown."

"Taban, the name is Taban. " Taban shook Johnny's metallic hand. "Lets drive back to the start and then I can show you the dome."

"Whatever you say, Tay-ban."

'"Taban, not tayban." Taban climbed back into the jetbike. He smiled wildly. For the first time since he came here….he didn't feels so alone. The other humans weren't exactly great conversationalists, and the robots below only spoke in deadly lazers. Johnny didn't seem like the type of per…robot he would like to talk to, but beggars can't be choosers. Any company is better then none.

"So this is the dome. Pretty radical. Looks way better then site 32." Johnny remarked as he returned to his "human" form.

" I've been here fo quite a while now. I've been repairing the roof, electrical system, plumbing, and anything else. Inside are a few humans, but they have long abandoned any hope. I'm trying to help them, as much as I can." Taban removed his screwdriver from the keyhole.

"I was planning on fixing the roof when I noticed something in the distance. It turned out to be site 32. With those extra materials I could surely fix the entire roof." Taban pointed at the gaping hole that he had recently started to fix.

As they entered the main hall the people inside paniced at the sight of Johnny.

"A robot! Look out!" Almost everyone in the room rose to their feet and flet ot the back of the room.

"Calm down, calm down!" Taban yelled. "This is Johnny. He doesn't want to kill you, right Johnny?"

"Why would I want to kill you?" It must have been Tabans mid, because he could swear that Johnny looked pretty pised.

The people didn't seem very relieved. Only the old man slowly walked forward.

"And what do you want with this robot?"

"I don't know really. But, he's here to help me help you."

"Whatever he said." Johnny slowly approached the old man. "I'm Johnny , and I'm the coolest robot around. Killing isn't cool.."

"Okay then. Welcome…Johnny, to our dome." The old man nodded at the others to relax.

Taban sighed. All fo a sudden he felt very tired. But he couldn't sleep, not right now. He stepped into the enetron and smiled at the feeling of pure rejuvinaton. But after the process was complete, his stomach roared.

"Shut up. There's no food here, so there's no reason to be complaining."

"As I have said before, our food storage is below, but no one ever returns…except you.

"I'm not going in there again. I barely made it out alive." Taban walked over to his work bench, examining three other guns he had constructed from the robots he encountered below.

'What are those things, dude?" Johnny picked up one.

"It's a gun. If you pull that trigger there it produces a beam. Don't aim it at the people!" Taban carefully handed Johnny a gun. "don't you have any of these lazers yourself?"

"Nope. I am not a security robot. All I got are my wheels, man." Johnny used his free hand to spin one of the wheels on his back while firmly gripping onto the gun with his other hand.

Taban's stomach complained again. It still wanted something to eat. It suddenly fell into place. The enrertron was keeping him alive, but the lack of food was still weakening him. Taban looked at all the weak, skinny people he was surrounded with. If he was unable to find any food soon, he would end up just like them.

"My God." Taban exclaimed. "I'll be just like them…unless…" Taban didn't like venturing below again, but he now knew he had little choice. "Johnny, I'm going to descend into the lower parts of the dome to find some food. You want to go with me?"

"Where do you need that `food ´for?"

"To not die."

"All right, I´m game.` Johnny put the gun back onto the workbench. Taban checked his equipment two times before carefully opening the valve, exposing the ladder that led to the hallways below.

`Well, here goes nothing.` Taban started to climb down, and was quickly followed by Johnny. Once they reached the end of the ladder Taban activated his gun on the lowest setting. He used as a flashlight, scanning the unfamiliar surroundings.

`Where are we going?`

´Don´t know, but the old man told me that there should be a food storage here below. ` Taban quickly recognized the hallway that was blocked on the left, but the right led into the hallway where he had his first encounter with a robot.

The hallway led into an open space, with several robots in the distance. For some reason they were moving back and forth, patrolling. They didn´t notice Taban and Johnny yet, but that didn´t last long.

`Hey there bro!` Johnny walked over to one of the robots that loked very much like those at site 32

`Hostile detected, opening fire.` The robot seemingly opened his shoulders and launched a few small rockets at Johnny, who was barely able to dodge them in time.

`It´s me, Johnny. You know me, so don´t attack me.`

`Identification rejected, opening fire.` the robot stated before launching another volley at Johnny. Johnny morphed into his bike form, and dodged the rockets by outrunning them.

While that was happening Taban put his gun on the maximum setting, aimed at the robot and shot at it´s one eye. He fired three shots, yet only one hit it´s eye The other two shots hit its ` neck`, disabling the robot.

`Whoa dude, that robot tried to destroy us.`

`They try to do that all the time.`

`Robots are not made to kill humans. They are made to protect.`

`Well then, why did that robot fire at you?`

``I wasn´t made to fight, dude, I can´t help you here.`

Taban sighed. ´ I understand. I´ll take you back then.`

`This place has lost it´s cool. How much more of these robots are trying to kill you? `

´Don´t know, a lot. ´ Taban secured the hatch. ` I just have to take them out, one by one.

´That´s a pretty epic thing to do. Too bad I don´t have any weapons, bro.`

`But I do…` Taban looked up and smiled. `Johnny, you can one of my guns.` He handed the robot a gun. Johnny, under Tabans guidance, aimed the gun at theground and pulled the trigger. The gun promply broke under Johnny´s crushing grip.

`Ah!` Taban yanked the gun out of his hand `You broke it.

`It happens, bro.` Johnny picked up a loose piece of the gun form the ground and gave it to Taban.

`Hmm…` Taban took the gun and looked at johnny. `I might just have another way. But I´ll have to modify you.`

`What do you mean, modify= I am perfect.

`If I could observe your inner circuits I could perhaps attatch a gun, or even two to your body.`

`You mean, give me two lasers? I hate to be modified but I´d take that upgrade, any day!`

Taban instructed Johnny to lie down on his workbench. He had no idea what he was going to do next, but he had managed to operate like that since he arrived here. Taban removed part by part of Johnny´s outer casing, revealing the multitude of wires and small engines below.`

`This looks pretty complicated, where do I attatch the guns to…`

`Perfection is complicated. I have been made in site 32, home of all advanced robots. `

`I can see that` The inner workings of Johnny were most likely made by a professional, or rather, a team of professional s with intellects far above his own. He carefully examined every loose part of Johnny, theorizing on what it´s purpose would be. It took him quite a while before he found an appropriate place for the two guns to be attatched. Near Johnny ´s shoulders he had two small robots that allowed him to raise his shoulders separately. These two motors had no other function then that, and therefore Taban believed he could attatch the guns without harming or hindering any other part of Johnny´s functionality. He first reattatched the lower parts of his casing, protecting his inner workings again. Then, he pulled out his gun, and began to attatch the first gun to Johnny´s left shoulder.

`Be very carefull. Do not move your shoulders of you could ruin everything, okay`

`I am cool itself. I can do this for years!`

`Mmhmm…` Taban drifted back off into this thoughts, no longer hearing the story Johnny was trying to tell to him about some time when he raced someone.

With a reasonably low setting Taban started to weld the gun to Johnny´s shoulder. He ttatched the trigger to the small engine below his shoulder and then used metal wiring to circle around the gun. After he was sure he had properly attatched the gun he tried tuggin at it. It wouldn´t move.

`And there we go, that´s one.` Taban thought backabout the way he attatched the gun, and then repeated the process on the second shoulder. At least, he was done. He checked Johnny´s casing and both guns, before helping Johnny back up.

`All right, this should do it. You can now use these two guns by raising your shoulders. Don´t fire yet, first make sure you can´t hit someone.` Taban took Johnny outside. He tossed a large scrap of metal onto the black ground ahead.` Try hitting that.`

Johnny slowly raised both shoulders. As he did both guns produced a laser. Johnny was taken back by the effect. ``This is awesome. I should have done this years ago!` Johnny focused the guns that were now sticking out of his shoulders, and hit the scrap.

`That was pretty good.`

` It was double awesome, dude. Thanks.` Johnny raised his hand, and Taban shook it.

`Let´s go back downstairs, okay? If I do not find food soon I will become weak…like the others. It´s already weakening me, and it can´t continue.`

`Whatever you say, gunman.`

`Taban wanted to correct him, before realizing that it was a compliment.-

Johnny and Taban made quite some progress. While Johnny was reluctant to fire upon another robot, all robots opened fire at first sight. After a while Johnny didn´t let them have the chance to fire any longer.`

They cleared out room, by room. Taban couldn´t resist smiling. Johnny was turning out to be a great partner, one he setteled into the role. Taban examined the next door. Softly, he opened it to peek inside. A robot turned around, ready to fire, but before it could Taban had already turned it into a swiss cheese robot.

`It´s safe.` Taban entered the room, lowering his gun´s setting to flashlight. In front of them stood a very large device with all kinds of buttons and a large, vertical glass plate.

`What is this thing?` Taban looked at the device, but he couldn´t at all determine what it was. But, his stomach roared again. It was interesting, but he would have to save that for later. Taban left the room, and closed the door behind him. `Nothing there.`

`We still haven't found your `food``. Are you sure it is down here at all, man?`

`I don´t know….I no longer think so,` Taban leaned back against the wall. `That was the last room. There´s nothing else down here. Damn it!`Taban slammed his hammer at the wall. `So that´s it. I can do whatever I want, in the end I´ll just lay down on the floor and die. Nothing matters any more.` Taban slammed his hammer against the wall again. `I´m going to die, stuck in this place….without my family or my friends.`Taban´s eyes started to tear.

`Dude, don´t cry. Crying isn´t cool.`

`WHO GIVES A SHIT IF IT´S NOT COOL! I´VE BEEN WORKING DAY AND NIGHT FOR MONTHS TO HELP THESE PEOPLE AND IT DIDN´T EVEN MATTER!` Taban calmed down a bit. Nothing really matters . Anone can see, nothing matters any more.I guess I´ll just sit here, and wait for my death. " Taban let out a deep sigh, and dropped his hammer.

He looked at his hammer, and more specifically the words on top of it. He smashed the hammer into the wall again. Then, he herd a strange metal clank. The metal showed clear traces of the impact of the hammer ,and Taban looked.

"Perhaps…" Taban picked up his hammer and stood up. "Do you remember at the entrance? There was a path to the left but a study metal door was blocking it. I tried to move it before but it wouldn't budge." Taban pointed back to the entrance, and Johnny followed him there. The depression Taban felt soon faded away, replaced by a new beacon of hope. The food storage could be near, it could be there.

Taban examined the door closely. IT had multiple locks on it, and wiring that led to the panel in the middle. The panel asked for a code, but after a few attempts Taban knew he just had to smash his way through. With scientific precision he started to hammer away at the doors hinges. Johnny stood a meter behind him, unable to produce a single sentence.

The door started to deform and bend backwards. Taban put his hammer down and put his gun on the highest setting. With a clam demenour he started cutting away at the very top of the door. With one fierce kick the door came free and fell onto the ground.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" Johnny played the sentence at a higher volume then normal.

"Yeah, whatever. Let's go."


	6. Chapter 4 feelings

Ded

(Author's note: I've begun to fix Johnny's speech pattern, as it was not quite thought out in the last chapter.

The next few corridors were suprisingly free of robots. Taban searched thoroughly but he couldn't find anything else then dust and metal. There were no alternate paths, just one route that simply kept going foreward. As Taban and Johnny wanted to enter the next room Taban suddenly held them both back.

"Stop!"

Up ahead, right in front of them was a metal path of beams. Taban quickly deduced that the floor must have collapsed onto a lower floor, setting off a chain reaction. Taban gazed over the depth below. He could faintly make out heaps of metal…and things. The rusty path ahead was very thing and looked not very solid. But he couldn't see any other way to progress then that.

"That is one deep fall. Johnny, how about you try if the beams hold you."

"Why me." Johnny put his hands on his sides, like a questioning human would do.

"Because…" Taban had to think about it for a sec. "If you fall I can repair you. If I fall, you can't repair me. Get the point?"

"Yes, but I do not like it." Taban moved out of the way to let Johnny test the waters. As Johnny stepped onto the metal beam it creaked slightly, but didn't seem to move, according to Taban.

"It seems to hold you. That's good! Ok, Johnny, try following the path, see if it leads anywhere. I'm going to stay here

"Yes." Johnny started maneuvering himself towards the other end of the large room. Taban held his breath that the path would hold, and it did.

Johnny stepped onto a smaller platform that led to another door.

"THERE IS A DOOR HERE." Johnny put his speakers on maximum power to make sure Taban could hear it on the other side of the room.

"STAY THERE! I WILL BE ON MY WAY!" Taban gulped as he took one more look at the depth below. Step by step he followed the thin path.

"Left foot…Right foot" Taban stared at his feet, checking his every step. One misstep…and….the end.

In his focused concentration he bumped into something. Taban lost his balance and started to scream. His hands moved wildly as they struggled to grab onto used both hands to hold on to the thing until he calmed down again. He was still standing on the beam, but what was more interesting to Taban was the thing that he bumped into. A statue of a rat. A large rat, half the size of Taban, at least, if it wasn't more.

Who would put such a thing there? How did it get on this path?

Taban had so many questions, but knew he had to leave them for now and press on. With his vision now constantly swiching between his feet and what was ahead, Taban made it to the door.

Johnny had already opened it, and was waiting for Taban to enter.

"You're slow, dude."

"Yeah, whatever. Let's go." Taban checked his equipment, but it was all intact to his relief.

"Do you smell that?"

"What is a smell." Johnny asked

"Eh….it's a sense you don't have, apparently. It stinks here, much more than it does outside. It smells like…rot."

"What is a rot."

"No time to explain. But I do believe that it's something important." Taban followed his nose into the next room. It was a central room that led to two rooms, one straight ahead and one to the left. Taban started to smile as he noticed that there was a sign stating "food storage" next to the door straight ahead.

"Johnny! We've found the food storage!"

"That is awesome."

"All we've gotta do is transport it back to the people above. From there we can see what else we can do. I'm not going to die after all!" As Taban approached the door he could hear something fall. He couldn't quite tell but he still chose to jump back.

A large metal device, attatched to the roof by two separate chains had appeared in front of them It looked like a human torso with short, cut off arms. It was painted an odd colour of green on the under side while the upper half was a worn out shade of yellow. Taban could see rust and decay all over the robot, but he could definitely make out that it was only on the surface, and that the robot was still functioning correctly. Or so he hoped.

Two large metal balls, about a quarter of the size of the main robot floated down from above. They both had flickering lights on the end of two small extrusions, and a large square glass eye, only, it was red instead of the brown coloured "eye" of the main robot.

"Executing program." The cold, emotionless words echoed around the room, sending a shiver down Taban's spine.

"What program." Johnny had no real concept of understanding the other robot's intentions, and therefore slowly maneuvered his lazers to point at the large glass eye.

"Protect storage." One of the metal balls produced a beam of light from it's eye that was reflected by the eye of the main robot. Somehow, it amplified itself and was strong enough to leave a large black mark wherever it had passed.

Taban, whom had barely recovered from the shock, managed to jump out of the way of the oncoming beam. Johnny was never quite as nimble as an actual human, but managed to avoid the beam as well. The beam suddenly ended, and the two metal balls silently floated back and forth for a bit

"Johnny, look at the floor." Taban pointed at the damage done at the floor. If they would not act fast the floor could collapse and take them with it. It was in a better shape then the room they had crossed before but he was unsure if it could sustain itself if the battle continued for any longer.

The upper end of both of the smaller robots opened, and they launched 5 to 10 small projectiles into the air. Small rockets flew up into the sky, and fell onto the ground. With every bomb that exploded the ground seemed to shake a bit more.

"GET BACK JOHNNY! NOW!" He waved his hand to Johnny making a bunch of wild gestures pointing at Johnny's back. Taban pulled out his laser, and aimed it at the central robot. It's eye seemed to reflect light and it's armour didn't seem like his laser could penetrate it.

"C'mon, think, think." Taban forgot to blink as he intensely observed the three robots opposing him. The two smaller ones were circling around the main robot, as if they were guarding it. Occasionally they would try to attack with their rockets, that were quite inaccurate but continued to weaken the floor. If he would attack the main robot, certainly the other two would attack him. But then, he noticed the weak spot.

A multitude of wires ran along the suspension chains that kept the robot in place. Taban breathed in and out, trying to control his shaking hand, steading his short. With one large blast, Taban cut through the left chain, but there were still two holding the device up. The two smaller robots moved into position to launch another laser attack, but Taban wouldn't allow them.

He aimed at the second chain, and fired another volley. It took a while, but it did the trick. The large robot was knocked off balance, now only hanging on the utter most right chain. Both of the smaller robot fired their lazer at the central one, but because the eye was out of position, they had no effect.

As the robots struggled to relocate themselves Taban cut the last wire.

The large robot crashed into the ground, its metal crumbeling and deforming. As Taban had predicted the floor collapsed under the weight, creating a large black hole of deformed metal that made the robot disappear into the deep. The two smaller, floating ones, moved in on Taban, who was clinging on to a large strip of metal.

Two shots took out two glass eyes. The robots seemed to lose control and crashed into a wall on the right before rolling into the dark pit.

Johnny reached out for Taban's back and pulled him onto the few last bits of solid metal.

"Thank you, so much!" Taban couldn't'help but hug Johnny. The act confused Johnny thoroughly, but from the way Taban spoke it must be a sign of affection.

"That was brilliant."

"That is my style, brilliant and double brilliant, dude."

"Right. Too bad they wanted to kill us. I would have loved to take them apart and see what we can scavenge. C'mon, let's go check out the food locker."

Taban led him and Johnny across the wall, over the most sturdy remaining path to the door on the other side of the room. The smell of rotting became much stronger, and Taban had to squeeze his nose to prevent it from overwhelming smell.

The room was quite small, but perhaps it was because of the two large metal boxes that filled the room. The walls were filled with fans that had stopped a while ago, seeming of the rust collected on the edges. In the distance Taban could hear a faint noise of dripping water. Taban's hopes fell again as he saw the rotten, grey pulp that came out of the two metal boxes.

He fell onto his knees, examining the pulp. It was made of seeds, all kinds of different seeds, that had started to rot long ago. Not much was left, outside of this mess.

"It's all rotten. God DAMN IT!" Taban tossed one of the seeds at the wall. "What?"

A man was sitting against the wall, his left hand holding something.

"Sir? Hello?" Taban approached the man, and tugged at the brown cloth he was wearing. It came off, revealing that the man was nothing more then a skeleton with hair attatched to it.

"Aah! …" Taban sighed. Despair was boiling in his mind. He was going to end up like that.

"No, I've put up with worse then this." Taban took another look at the skeleton, if there was anything else to it. The bones of the left hand were holding something, clenching it even after the man…or woman died? Carefully to not disturb any other part of the remains he eased open the hand. There was a small seed inside…but one that was still relatively untouched from the rot that had befallen the rest of the seeds. Taban took the seed and put it inside his front pocket, making sure to zip up properly. Perhaps, there was still some hope. Nonsense, there allways was hope. If there was no hope, he would make it.

Taban looked back at the rotten pulp. It couldn't help him…but remind him of the time he found that old piece of meat he found in the back yard. It had all kinds of fancy colours on it, and Taban couldn't resist tasting it. He had been sick for a week after that. If he were to eat the pulp he would definitely get sick.

There had to be something he could do with it. But what? Lucca and him were not much into biology, or plants or any kind of food. They had a little garden in the back yard, but that was it basically.

Another plan came to mind. He couldn't feed it to the people above, not like this. Perhaps, something could be done with them.

Taban remembered a visit from his close friend Steri, an inventor, just like him, but in stead of focusing on science Steri became and expert on food and farming. They constantly showed off inventions to each other, even if the other wasn't very interested in what there was to say. One day, Steri showed up to his house with a rotten piece of meat, just like the one Taban had foolishly eaten. Taban snatched the meat out of her hands, and tossed in the trash can.

"And that's where that belongs."

"I disagree." Steri reached into the trash can and grabbed the meat back out of it. " It's perfectly fine to eat, as long as you treat it properly. Let me demonstrate. If you eat it like this, you will get sick. But…"

Steri walked over to the stove and pulled out a pan. After thoroughly frying the meat for over an hour until it's crust was black and deformed. Then, Steri placed it on a plate, and started to cut off the edges until all black edges had been removed.

"Dinner is served." She eagerly cut out a large part and ate it in one bite. And as she had said, she didn't get sick, or had any problem with eating it. She later patented the practice as Sterilization, named after herself. Taban smiled. He would never even think of calling an invention after himself. After all, showing off the Taban-teleporter would have sounded silly.

Perhaps, Taban could try and plant the seed he took from the skeleton, while trying to make anything edible from the pulp.

The next few days were a blur, like the many days before them. Taban and Johnny brought back the rotten seeds to the hallway below the central room. The repulsive smell would keep any of the people from eating it, but Taban feared that if they would see the seeds they would eat them anyway. From outside, he grabbed some of the dirt below the surface, that lacked the dark, grey colour of the surface but was light brown. Using some water he collected from the water system, Taban placed his precious plant in a improvised patch of dirt placed in the room next to those that was temporarily storing the seeds. Under artificial sunlight, he could only hope that it could grow. While carefully monitoring the seed from time to time, Taban and Johnny turned to making the most of the rotten seeds.

Taban had stripped a large sheet of metal from the room they cleaned from robots earlier and had begun to deform it into a very large pan. With rhythmic strickes up and down he kept building at his next creation. With sturdy supports underneath, Taban had now created a large pan. Around it he placed 8 standards on which he placed 8 guns, aimed at the center of the pan.

Meanwhile Johnny was working on his own assignment. Since Taban didn't want to use the normal (it was barely sufficient for the drinking needs of the people) He added a pan to johnny's back and sent him out to collect sea water. Johnny didn't like his assignment, but really, he had nothing else to anyway. So he moved across the broken path, filled his "pan" with seawater, and made the whole trip back to slowly fill up the large soup pan.

After all contruction was complete Taban set to creating a large spoon that he could use to stir the soup, and along with the spoon came a set of small metal bowls, created out of plate metal just like the larger pan.

Finally, he set to the final fase of his plan. He manually searched through the seeds if there were any that were still usable to be planted, but unfortunately they were all too far gone. One by one he tossed them into the soup, with the seawater-rotten seed soup quickly taking form.

Taban and Johnny filled up the soup pan just below spilling over. One by one, Taban activated the 8 separate guns, that were set a tad below the setting that could melt metal. Then, the tedious chore of stirring the soup began. Taban did it for 6 hours, before switching with Johnny. Johnny waited for his turn, while Taban was constantly checking back and forth to make sure that the structure of the pan remained intact.

Two days of constant cooking. But finally, it was done. Taban wiped the sweat from his eyebrows.

"That should do it. It should be…somewhat edible."

He had completely forgotten to check up on the seed he had planted. As he entered the room he started to laugh. The seed had sprouted, and a small green bump had appeared in the pot. Careful not to drown it, Taban watered the plant gently.

"Johnny!"

"Yes." Johnny examined the plant.

"This is the most valuable thing we have right now. I want you to guard it. I'm going to call the people down here, and you must make sure none of them even looks at it. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Thanks. Remember,if that thing is destroyed all we did was for nothing."

Johnny nodded "No human other then you shall enter this room."

"Good. I'm going to try out our soup before we give it to the others. " Taban pulled Johnny along into the hallway, so that he blocked the entrance to the room with the seed.

"I'll be right back." Taban turned around. He didn't want to try the soup, but he had to be sure he wasn't poisoning those he wanted to feed. Taban stirred around the soup for abit before he put some of it in a bowl.

Reluctantly he put it to his lips. It tasted quite disgusting, like a combination of rotten bread, sand, and a bitter taste that he couldn't identify. The sudden feeling of hunger overwhelmed him and he quickly drank the bowl clean. After two refills his stomach was filled.

After the hunger feelings disappeared Taban yawned. With his must demanding urges satisfied, Taban couldn't help himself any longer and promptly fell asleep.

_The metal floor turned into a warm and soft bed, and everything was at peace._

_Taban dreamed of his wife and daughter. All was good. He was home, working on a new invention, with his daughter at his side. _

_After a while, Taban and Lucca felt like going on a picknic. They sat in the grass, sharing theories and ideas while enjoying Taban's fine cooking. All was fine._

_At the end of their picnick Lucca hugged her dad, and he hugged her back. His eyes started to well up. Tears were streaming from his eyes. _

"_I love you so much, you know that right?" _

"_I know, Dad. Wouldn't you want life to be like this?" _

"_What do you do mean?"_

"_Like today. Look at it dad, a bird's nest!" Lucca dragged him along over to a tree._

"_Wait, didn't I move that nest away ever since they stole my screwdriver?"_

"_These birds don't steal, dad." Taban couldn't help but feel slightly confused. He fondly remembered moving the nest away, but here, the birds were not crows, but seagulls._

"_Everything here is perfect." _

"_You know, that's not a word you use often. It's not perfect, it just needs a slight recalibration. At least, that's what I allways see you saying, even after the thing we built is perfection itself._

"_Dad, calm down, you're getting worked up over the little things."_

_Taban looked at Lucca. It was his daughter….but at the same time it was not. She was much more relaxed than usual. As if she had found inner peace, without a single concern on her mind. Then it struck him…Lucca was perfect._

_He couldn't quite tell why, but the more he looked around things started to feel off. His mind was starting to doubt if what he saw was real. It looked real, but it was all…better. Everything was better than it was before. He let himself fall into the grass, slowly. It felt wonderful, just as soft and warm as his bed at home. This was heaven, his own personal heaven on earth. _

"_You never answered my question." Lucca leaned over him. "Do you wish to stay here, for the rest of your days?"_

"_Yes, of course I would. But I already am here, and I don't plan on leaving."_

"_Oh, no, you're just visiting."_

"_Visiting" Taban got back up. "Lucca, what are you babbeling about?"_

"_Right now…you are lying on a metal floor in the hell dome. But you don't have to stay there, you can come to us."_

"_I…." Memories came flooding in, of the horrendous place. Of his suffering, and of his work._

"_You are never going to escape it. So why bother to wait?"_

"_WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?" Taban grabbed Lucca by the shoulder, and shook her a bit._

"_It's simple dad." She said with a wide smile."Kill yourself."_

"_WHAT!" Taban grasped for breath _

"_Kill yourself, Dad. End the misery, the loneliness. Just kill yourself and you can be with me for the rest of time." Lucca kept on the same wide smile._

"_No." Taban said, slowly backing away from his daughter. _

"_No?" Lucca tilted her head to the side, her smile turning into a frown. _

"_No! I am not killing myself. I AM NOT KILLING MYSELF!" Taban yelled, mostly to reassure himself._

"_Look around you. " "Lucca" pointed at the surroundings. "You love it here. It's perfect." Her smile was just as wide as it was before. _

"_I do. I can't lie about that. I'm not killing myself over it. These people….they need me. I can't just abandon them like that. Besides, you are not my daughter!" Taban pointed an accusing finger at " Lucca". _

"_What are you talking about, daddy?" "Lucca" feigned innocence, in tone and in look. _

"_My daughter, Lucca, gets worked up on the smallest things, it's in her blood, just like her mother. We never invent without an argument, but we make science work every single time. You…you're perfect. Even better then her."_

"_Thanks for the compliment, Daddy. So I assume you're going to be staying then?"_

"_You're better then her, but you're NOT HER! MY DAUGHTER WOULD SUPPORT ME JUST LIKE I SUPPORTED HER! YOU, HOWEVER, ARE A LYING, TREACHEROUS FAKE!" _

"_Lucca" started to cry, and fell onto her knees. "Why don't you love me, Daddy? Why can't you just accept your fate?" _

_Taban reached out for Lucca, his spirit suddenly broken by the image of his crying daughter._

"_It's ok…" Taban pulled her into a hug. "Please…stop crying. I've….been stressed a lot lately."_

"_So…" Lucca wiped a tear from her eyes. "You're going to stay?"_

"_Think so…."Taban pulled his daughter even tighter. "It is wonderfull here." _

_Taban stared his daughter nthe eyes. All was fine. It was Lucca, his own daughter. And now, they could work together again. Make science like never before. _

_Then, he noticed the smile. The smile on Lucca's face was just as wide as before. But to a disturbing degree. It was as if she had slipped on a perfect mask of a smiling Lucca. He took one more look around. It was so much better here, so much better then the metal hell he ended up in. But would he really want to spend eternity with a perfect, but fake version of his daughter? _

"_Lucca…." Taban said, reluctantly. _

"_Yes, daddy?"_

"_I'm going to leave. I'm sorry, my mind is set. I can either make a difference there, or be stuck in limbo here. I'd rather face reality then deny it." Taban turned around, and started to walk away._

"_So…" "Lucca" started to cry again."You're going to abandon me again, just like that? Daddy, don't…"_

_Taban turned around "STOP MANIPULATING ME! I AM LEAVING, AND NO AMOUNT OF YOUR FAKE TEARS WILL BE STOPPING ME!" _

"_Lucca" looked him right in the eyes. Now, everything about her seemed off to him. _

"_Are you sure? "_

"_Definitly, conclusively, and finally."_

_Lucca started to shake, and a laugh escaped her lips. Her hair suddenly fell off her head, even her eyebrows dropped. Her eyes popped out of here eye sockets, and the sockets disappeared. It was as if the flesh simply fell off her face, revealing a completely grey figure. The only feature remaining on it's face was the very same smile Taban recognized on Lucca._

"_IFI CaNT HaVE You THEn No oNe CaN." It was as if a grey figure stepped out of Lucca's body, revealing a nonedescrip grey body, without any feature outside of the giant black as night claws that were sticking out of the creature's hands. _

_With a scream so loud and high that it pearced Taban's eardrums the creature attacked. Taban acted quickly and decisively. With one full on, fierce strike of his hammer the creature stumbled back and fell over. _

_In the time it took Taban to blink the creature had disappeared, and "Lucca" lay on the ground injured. Uneasy she got on her knees._

"_Why dO yOU hit me like that, DADDy?" The voice was definitely Lucca's, but it seemed quite weak and distorted. "I LOVe you." _

"_You are not my daughter." Taban approached her, brandishing his hammer. "And you never will be." He raised his hammer into the air, and then let it fall. Lucca lay on the ground, her body slowly disappearing into nothingness. Taban started to cry. As his first tear splashed into the grass it all ended. He fell back onto metal floor. His body rejuvenated, his spirit injured, but never broken. If anything, he knew he would do everything to get back home again. Back home…to his wife and daughter…_

Though I'm past a hundred thousand miles,

I'm feeling very still.

And I think my spaceship knows which way to go.

Tell my family I love them very much, they know

Ground control to Major Dad

Your ciricuit's dead, is there something wrong?

Can you hear me Major Dad

Can you hear me Major Dad

Can you hear me Major-

Here I am, floating in heaven

Planet earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do….

Rest in peace, Father.

You might be gone but you are never forgotten.

Your did your best, for me, for mom, for my sister.

I can't do anything but be eternally gratefull to you.

Rest in peace. And in a year of 70 I will be seeing you again. While I do not like to know the fact that I am going to die the feeling that I can spend eternity with you is the most comforting thought I could ever have.

I'll be making you proud, dad. I know you'll be watching me wherever I go.

I love you dad. I have always, and forever will.

You've done your best. And now, you may rest.

I'll be ok.

P.S. he might not even exist yet(and probably won't for a while), but your grandson is going to be named Ad. And if it's a girl she'll be called An. And trust me, you'll be just as proud of them as you were of me and my sister. It is a shame you never lived to see that day, but I guess that is the true cruelty of life.

Your last message to me was that whatever way I could, I just should become happy. I am happy dad, happy though the tears. Happy and relieved. You're in a better place now, free of worries and pain.

You said you trust me, in our last conversation. And I trusted you. I boared that bus, knowing I'd be back the next Friday, back at your sickbed. I don't think either of us knew you would die at the next sunrise. I love you dad, I really do. I do now, more then I ever realized before. You did not die in vain, you have left your mark on the world. You were given three months and took two years. You were a miracle, up to the very end.

The more I see, the more I realize I am putting more and more of my own feelings into this story. Perhaps it's helping me cope. Perhaps not. Only the future will tell.

Life is permanent. Death is temporary.

I can hear the rain coming

Like a serenade of sound

But my feet

won't touch the ground.

R.I.P

P.S: tell grandma that I'm going to be fine. I still think of her every week, less frequent then I used to. Tell her I love her, and that her husband is on his way to her as well. It's sad, but he is simply waiting out his days with alcohol and television. We know he's going to die,the question is how long will he last. It is the saddest thing possible to see a good man slip away. Even when he still has some proper time to do some things, time you never got, but you still defied your odds and took it. But he…just sits and complains. He's thin, skinny even, can't go an hour without taking his next drink. He's a shell of a man. He has no dreams or hopes. It is sad to say, but it's probably better for him to leave this earth. We do our best but there's nothing left for him here.

The only good news is my other grandpa. He's doing ok, and has been declared free of cancer….for now. Change the subject , restart the timer and watch hell play out all over again. But for now…there is relative…peace. Though, I'm not really lowering my defenses. I don't want to do a third speec about a passed relative, but the odds are stacked against me. Just like they always were.

Dear Reader,

I would like to apologize for the above….dumping of emotions, but after the last scene with Taban and Lucca I broke down and started to write down exactly how I felt. Now, moments later after writing it and reading it two times I simply couldn't get myself to delete the above section.

I'll be continuing this story soon., but now, I put my attention back into my other fanfic.,

Signed

~ W. A. J. K

A.K.A DenHollander.

Also, thanks for reading and reviewing.

Edit: you remember my other grandpa. The one that was cancer free. As I got home today I just herd that he's got cancer again, and that he's going back into treatment soon

What the fuck do you do, when everyone is dying around you?


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